And Dua Lipa did that (#metoo)

OUVRE LE CHIEN is a structure devoted to the in vivo recycling of thwarted utopias.
Its aim is to extract from the realm of representation an organic series of events, bound together by the fantastical machinery and the complex experience of being in the world — in all its magnificent disorder and muted revolt.

Its fields of action: performance, publishing, digital imagery, experimentation.
We measure (dis)comfort daily through an immersive, breath-held exploration that could be described as theatre.

Renaud Cojo has been its artistic director since 1992.

I was born in 1966 and grew up in the suburbs of Bordeaux, in the small town of Villenave d’Ornon, in the Chambéry neighborhood—where, ironically, there were no mountains at all. On weekends and during school holidays, I would often visit my grandparents in Bas-Armagnac, where I eventually bought a farm myself (which has since been sold). At school, I would redraw their beautiful house from memory during class, as a way of testing out the idea of teleportation.

On Saturday evenings, I went to mass, which offered a precious time to dream in the silence of churches. I remember my first 45 rpm record — Pipiou présente tous vos grands amis — my first record player (The Soundmaster Pack 80, in blue), my first camera (a Kodak Brownie Scarlet), my first bedroom of my own at age 14, and my first cassette recordings.

At sixteen, I played Géronte in The Doctor in Spite of Himself, mimicking the principal of my school. That was the beginning of recognition.

Later, I studied sociology while continuing my artistic explorations with fellow students. In 1990, I created my first alias and started calling myself Renaud Cojo. I’ve kept that name ever since.

As an actor, director, writer, performer, filmmaker, and photographer, I discovered theatre through music — especially through David Bowie, whom I saw 37 times in concert between 1983 and 2003. In 1991, I founded the label Ouvre le Chien, through which I have led numerous projects.

From the start, I embraced the spontaneity of language, resisting the mechanics of traditional representation in favor of a freer aesthetic form, organizing my work around instinct, ambiguity, fragmentation, and sketch-like processes: Les Taxidermistes, What in the World, Lolicom (winner of the jury prize at the Festival du Jeune Théâtre in Alès, 1996).

Pour Louis de Funès by Valère Novarina (with Dominique Pinon) premiered in 1998 at Théâtre de la Bastille and toured nationally in subsequent seasons. It marked a step toward a more publicly acknowledged theatrical form.

As an uneasy figure in the institutional theatre world, I have questioned the representation of the human figure and its monstrous dimensions through what I’ve called an "involuntary trilogy." In 2000, I staged the French premiere of Sarah Kane’s Phaedra’s Love (with Thierry Frémont) at Théâtre de la Bastille. In 2002, for the Festival d’Avignon, I created La Marche de l’Architecte by Daniel Keene and later presented the suffocating Sniper by Pavel Hak in an electroacoustic setting at La Ferme du Buisson and Villeneuve d’Ascq (Labomatic, 2005).

Beyond theatre, I published a long-form poem, Rave / ma religion, with William Blake & Co. Editions, and performed it in 2005. I performed in the early works of Michel Schweizer (Kings, Scan) and shared the stage with Patrick Robine in Le Zootropiste at Théâtre du Rond-Point (2005–2006). As a filmmaker, I initiated Band In A Phone, a full concert film of the Flemish band Zita Swoon, recorded entirely on mobile phones — a project I still believe to be a world first (2008).

After Elephant People (2007), a pop opera about circus “freaks” with live music by The Married Monk (Discograph Label), I created And Then I Asked Christian to Play the Intro to Ziggy Stardust (toured 2010–2013, revived in 2015 at the Cité de la Musique). This performance-theatre piece confronted identity instability, with my personal connection to David Bowie at its heart.

Continuing that exploration, I delved into virtual identity as the engine of a “theatre of truth,” engaging social networks in Plus tard, J’ai Frémi Au Léger Effet De Reverbe Sur I Feel Like A Group Of One (Suite Empire) and Œuvre / Orgueil, inspired by the writings of Edouard Levé at the Théâtre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine (2014). Orgueil later became a photographic and video-based exhibition. For this, I traveled 27,771 kilometers across France in search of towns named after common nouns — a reflection on the mental path and methodology behind artistic creation, rather than the value of its final form. At 48, I realized that this theme had, in fact, run through all my work from the beginning.

In 2015, I shot my first film, Low, in Berlin, as part of the Low/Heroes trilogy — a Berlin Hyper-Cycle staged at the Philharmonie de Paris with the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, during the David Bowie Is exhibition. That same year, I directed a music video for Bertrand Belin (Je Parle En Fou, Wagram/Cinq7).

In January 2015, I created Par la Preuve que le Réel N’Existe Pas, a lightweight performance for two actors about social invisibility, as part of the FACTS Festival (Festival Arts et Sciences, Bordeaux).

In October 2017, after two years of development, I presented Haskell Junction, a diptych (performance/film) exploring the theme of borders — geopolitical, social, and intimate — at the Théâtre National Bordeaux-Aquitaine.

As a graphic novelist, I wrote the script for Crépuscule des Pères, a collaboration with illustrator Sandrine Revel, published by Les Arènes. My novel À l’ennemi qui ne m’a pas laissé le temps de le tuer was released in September 2019 by Éditions Moires.

In 2019, I founded the Discotake festival in Bordeaux and launched the participatory project Passion Disque / 3300 Tours, designed for live performance venues. This unique initiative invites residents to share their intimate connections to popular music — from the 1950s to today — through vinyl records, creating a show that weaves together personal stories and life journeys via music.

In March 2022, my latest production, People Under No King (P.U.N.K), was produced by the Opéra National de Bordeaux and premiered at the TNBA. It explores the punk movement — its history, its energy, and its musical power — through a hybrid form. The show toured across Europe in the 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 seasons.

I continue to carry several projects for the years ahead — born of encounters that are either accidental... or perhaps, carefully orchestrated.

I’ve been composing and performing music for 25 years now — solo or in groups, in concerts, for theatre productions, short films, commercials, or through community and cultural outreach projects.
A multi-instrumentalist, producer, actor, and tinkerer in all things technical and sonic, I’ve collaborated with Le Collectif OS’O, La Compagnie Origami (choreographer and dancer Gilles Baron), Le Théâtre Du Rivage, Le Dernier Strapontin, La Compagnie Silex, Le Glob, La Compagnie Vive, Renaud Cojo’s company, the La Lupa collective, as well as several short film directors and audiovisual production companies.

I’ve also enjoyed a measure of success with my solo project I Am Stramgram — winner of the Ricard SA Live Prize, selected for Le Printemps de Bourges and Les Francofolies in 2016 — a project that notably earned me free backstage coffee with some absurdly rich rock stars.

In 2023, I also launched a francophone pop side project called Terland, whose debut EP (released via La Souterraine – Schubert Music Europe and Jovial Publishing) includes several songs originally written for stage productions.

With Renaud Cojo and Vincent Jouffroy

Concept: Renaud Cojo

Music: Vincent Jouffroy (I AM STRAMGRAM)

Video: Laurent Rojol

Sound: Paul Magne

Lighting: Fabrice Barbotin

Set Construction: Jean-François Huchet

Production: Ouvre le chien, La Route Productions

Co-production: Glob Théâtre – Nationally Certified Stage for Art and Creation (Bordeaux)